Final Evaluation - Contents Page

SWOT Analysis of my magazine – Contents Page

Strengths-

1.       I find that I have used a successful colour scheme.  I overall used neutral and earthy like colours. For my contents page I used khaki green, incorporated from the leather jacket of the model on the front cover as the background, and the same colours, navy blue, cream and brown, from the front cover. I wanted to keep the same colour instead of changing them. This allowed for there to be consistency in my magazine.

2.       I have 3 images, all visible and well photographed and edited. I have also put a clear and concise description of what the image relates to. This allows for my audience to know what articles are going to be about. The image just gives a visual help to those that prefer to see images rather than just writing. This allows for there to be an understanding of what will be in the article.

3.       I feel that the fact that there is a minimal amount of writing focus on the quality of the magazine and what it really is about. This allows for my audience to have to digest as much as they did on the front cover and causes less confusion on the page.

Weaknesses

1.       I find that even though there is a minimal amount of writing on the page, it is quite bare. This is due to the fact that I overloaded my front cover with all of the information that should have been put on the contents page. All of the stories being put on the front cover meant that I only had the main articles to put in the contents page.

2.       I have only said that there are 9 pages in my magazine. For my target audience, who stated that they would be paying minimum of 20p for a magazine that only consists of 9 pages, where there are other magazines that discuss different topics and they are given away for free.

Final Evaluation - Front Cover

SWOT Analysis of my magazine – Front Cover

Strengths –

1.       My magazine covers a wide variety of topics that would ne viewed and could catch the attention of my target audience, college students. I did this because in my market research I found that even though one of the main topics students were interested in was sport, many other people liked music, beauty and technology where liked by many others. Incorporating these topics will increase the reception received from my target audience.

2.       My colour scheme works very well together, as they are neutral colours that are not too old or over powering on to the eye. They are simple, everyday colours that are appreciated by everyone. The colour scheme consisting of navy blue, which I incorporated from the watch that the model on the front cover is wearing, brown and a light cream colour that is was also incorporated from the background of the image. All of these colours compliment each other and are very easy to make use of. They are general colours that everybody likes. I didn’t request for my market audience to select a colour scheme as I wanted some freedom in what I would choose.

3.       The image of my model is very well taken. It is a simple photograph, with her posing with her two middle fingers’ directed at the reader. I decided to blur out the finger to create an effect that could possibly intrigue the reader. It an effect that would cause for them to look deeper into the image, causing them to spend more time looking at the magazine. Some of my audience could find that they want to look more into the magazine. The front cover needs to be eye catching and I feel that my front cover stands out and grabs the reader’s attention quite efficiently.

Weaknesses –

1.    On my front cover, there is quite a large amount of writing as I have put information about topics that will be in my magazine of the cover rather than the contents page. This could cause for people to be put off by the amount of writing that I have. Many people, especially those in the category of my target audience, find that they prefer to see more images and a minimal amount of writing in magazines. This could cause for there to be a fall in the amount of people that take an interest in my magazine.

2.    I have found that on quite of a few of my coverlines; have covered up my cover, especially my image. It causes for there to be slight confusion when a reader would be trying to read what is on the cover as they could get confused as there is a large amount of words to take in.

3.    I have found that even though I chose a very simple and easy colour scheme, the colour blends into each other quite often. It happens most in the brief explanations under the coverlines and I think that readers would not bother reading what it has to say. Also I have chosen the wrong sizes of text, making some things to large and what could be considered as more important too small.

College Magazine - Front Cover

College Magazine - Contents Page

Audience Research Graph - 11

I asked this question to find out how many pages students would like to have in their magazine. I found that there was quite an even number overall in my results about how pages were wanted. Of 20 students 40% wanted no more than 10 pages in their magazine. This could be due to the fact that they didn’t want to have many pictures but just wanted the majority of the magazine to have images and a minimal amount of words.

Audience Research Graph - 10

I asked this question to find out what the students would do if they had to pay for a quality with a high quality. This would allow for me to know if I would put more free give-aways , competitions and prizes. Of 20 students, over half would prefer to pay for a higher quality magazine as they aware that it would benefit them.

Audience Research Graph - 9

I asked this question because I wanted to know how big the students wanted for their magazine to be. The size of the magazine affects how many people would buy it as some people cannot read the small print in smaller sized magazines so they prefer larger magazine sizes. Of 20 students, the a large portion preferred to have a normal A4 magazine.

Audience Research Graph - 8

This question was asked to find out what possible things could be put in the magazine to that could entice them to buy it. It gave me an idea on what things would be put in the magazine that could allow for students to be more interested in what is being sold. Of 20 students, the majority preferred to have vouchers as a free gift in the magazine.

Audience Research Graph - 7

This question was asked to see what students would be willing to pay for a college magazine. This was asked so that I could have an overall idea of how I would price it according to the results that I received. Of 20 students, the vast majority would pay no more than 20p for the magazine.

Audience Research Graph - 6

I asked this question to find out if students would be willing to pay for the magazine as this would affect the contents of the magazine and how it is presented. Of 20 students the vast majority felt that the magazine should be free.

Audience Research Graph - 5

I asked this question to see how often the students would read the magazine. The majority chose to read the issue monthly as it would be able to contain a larger and more successful overview of events and it would be more interesting to read instead of reading it in weekly segments. Of 20 students, the majority, 55% choose to have the magazine published every month.

Audience Research Graph - 4

I asked this question to find out if the students would be interested in a college magazine. The purpose of this question was to see if they would read and be interested if a magazine was to be published. Of 20 students, the majority, 60% would like and would be interested in a college magazine.

Audience Research Graph - 3

I asked this question to have any overall idea as to what the students who would be reading the magazine are interested in. I found that the majority are interested in sport and this allows me to have a topic to focus on when creating my magazine. Of 20 students, the majority enjoy sports as a hobby and I asked this randomly as I didn’t want for there to be any factors that affected my results.

Audience Research Graph - 2

I asked this question as my college magazine is aimed at one age group, 16-18 year olds. Asking this question allowed for me to know what age range I was dealing with and they are the only ages relevant to my magazine. Of 20 students the majority was aged 16 but I had a mixture of ages so which allowed for my results to not be dominated by any factors.

Audience Research Graph - 1

I asked this question to find out the gender of people that would be answering my questionnaire. This allowed me to get a general idea if any factors would dominate my results. Also having an idea of the gender would allow for me to know if any results could be affected because of the sex chosen. I decided to go with an equal amount of each sex as I would get an even amount of results for each gender. Of 20 people I asked to male students and 10 female students. This was because I wanted an equal amount of genders so that my research was fair.

Audience Research Questionnaire

Media Studies: Questionnaire

Hello my name is Amina and I was wondering if you could take a few moments of your time to fill out my questionnaire. I am doing market research as part of my course and I would be grateful to you completing the questions below:

Please tick the appropriate box

1. What gender are you ?

 

Male

Female

2. How old are you ?

16

17

18 +  

3. What are your hobbies ?

Fashion

Sport

Beauty

Games

Music

Technology

Art

4. Would you be interested in a college magazine ?

Yes

No

5. How often would you like for the magazine to be issued ?

Daily

Weekly

Monthly

Every Term

Annually

6. Do you think the magazine should be free ?

Yes

No

7. If you had to pay for the magazine, what would be your limit ?

20p

50p

£1.00

£1.50

£2.00 +

8. What freebies would you like in the magazine ?

Sweets

CD’s

Gadgets

Equipment

Books

Vouchers

9. What size would you like for the magazine to be ?

A3

A4

A5

10. Would you pay more for a higher quality magazine ?

Yes

No

11.  How many pages would you like to have in the magazine ?

10

20

30 +

12. Are there any special features that you would like to see on the magazine ?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for your time .